Friday, December 02, 2016

Uh, About That Sober Living Marathon....

SPECIAL MEETING AGENDA SHRINKS - MAYBE TO NOTHING AT ALL
You'll recall that I gave you a head's-up about what I thought would be a marathon of Sober Living issues being heard by the Costa Mesa Planning Commission on Monday, December 5th. I wrote about it HERE. Well, as is the case most of the time in life, things change... in this case, change BIG TIME!

"HELP ME! I'M MELTING!"
The official agenda report was released by The City today. You can read it HERE. In this version there are only four (4) items remaining to be heard from that original list we were provided. The three (3) items removed from the meeting agenda Monday are:

PA-16-25 at 2417 Orange Avenue. This was pulled because of a noticing problem.

PA-16-37 and PA-16-38 at 125 E. Wilson Street and 131 E. Wilson street. There was a noticing problem on one of them, so both were pulled from the agenda.

PA-16-06 at 200 Cabrillo was removed because the staff needed more time to analyze the issue.

There was no indication given as to when these items will be heard by the Planning Commission - there is no mention of them on the official staff report.

Remaining on the agenda are the following: 2041 TUSTIN AVENUE
Public Hearing #1, HERE, is a Conditional Use Permit for an All-Male Sober Living facility with 13 occupants at 2041 Tustin Avenue. The staff is recommending approving the request.

166 E. 18TH STREET
Public Hearing #2, HERE, is a Conditional Use Permit for a Sober Living Home with 14 women at 166 E. 18th Street, including an appeal of the denial of reasonable accommodation. The staff is recommending upholding the denials.

171 AND 175 ROCHESTER STREET
Public Hearing #3, HERE, is a Conditional Use Permit to operate a State licensed alcohol and drug treatment facility serving 20 person at 171 and 175 Rochester Street. The staff is recommending denial of the appeals.

235 AND 241 E. 18TH STREET
Public Hearing #4, HERE, is a Conditional Use Permit to operate a State licensed alcohol and drug treatment facility serving 24 persons at 235 and 241 E. 18th Street. The staff is recommending denial of the appeals.

MAYBE THEY WILL ALL BE CONTINUED...HOWEVER.... all of these issues - and the other three - are being handled by one lawyer, Mr. Steve Poulan, and we are told that he has officially requested they all be continued until he can be present. Commissioner Colin McCarthy, during the meeting last week, implied that they, the commission, were being played in this process. It is our understanding that Mr. Poulan is the attorney that worked the case against Newport Beach that ended costing our neighboring city $10 million, so I suspect our commissioners and city council will tread very carefully in this matter. It would not surprise me to see all four of these agenda items continued to a date in the future. I'm told that the staff is completely prepared to move forward with each of the above four items.

YOU CAN STILL ATTEND AND COMMENT
So, all you folks who planned to attend with pitchforks and torches... maybe, just maybe, that will be premature. There is nothing to keep you from attending and expressing your views during Public Comments, even if the individual items are not heard Monday night.

WHO KNOWS WHEN?
It's probable that NONE of these items - nor the other three that were pulled from the agenda - will be heard on the next meeting on December 12th because that meeting already has a packed agenda. To my knowledge there are no more Planning Commission meetings scheduled after that until January.... but one just never knows these days.